Things concerning Jews in Portland and everywhere that happen here and in Israel coming from an American-Israeli.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

History Channel's Take on Manna Made by Alien Machine

Nadene Goldfoot
Usually I love the History channel. I was watching the History channel on TV this morning and a program was on telling about the Exodus, so naturally I was interested. They stated that the Egyptians didn't allow the Jews to leave Egypt, which was wrong. The Pharoah was finally worn down and consented to their leaving after many plagues hit their land, but changed his mind after they had left. The Egyptians met up with them since they were on horseback and the Israelites weren't. If you saw the movie, you should remember the scene where the water parted allowing the Israelites to cross, but covered up the Egyptians chasing after them.

However, the point the writers were making was that aliens from outer space helped to create Manna. "Oh, really?" The narrators look like they might have come from outer space more than they look like Torah scholars.

They went on to say that Moses got some machine from Egypt before they left, of course, obviously created by the aliens, who had sympathy for their future starvation. Where did they get such wild information about these seeds, they said manna was? Why from the Zohar, of course. Some scientist even showed a sketch he had drawn of the machine from the information given in the Zohar.

Not having a Zohar in my library in my house, I got out my trusty Haftorah, Volume I, and turned to Exodus XVI 11 and read..
G-d, speaking to Moses, called it bread. "In the morning there was a layer of dew round about the camp. And when the layer of dew was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness, fine, scale-like things, fine as the hoar-frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another; "What is it?"--for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them: "It is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."

Then they were told to gather it every man according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, shall ye take it, every man for them that are in his tent. ...and Moses said unto them; "Let no man leave of it till the morning." For those who did, it turned into worms and was rotten. They gathered it every morning, and as the sun waxed hot, it melted.

When the Sabbath was coming the people were told to bake and to seethe what they had and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning, and it did not rot or have worms. Six days they were to gather it, but not on the 7th day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Moses said that they were to keep an omerful ( 1/10th part of an ephah) of it throughout the generations so they may see the bread fed to you in the wilderness. ( The term "omer" was a new term. It is not found in the Torah anywhere whereas the term "ephah" was the well-known name of a measure. He told Aaron to take a jar and put an omerful of manna in and lay it up before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations. They ate manna for 40 years of their wandering before entering Canaan. Moses gave the complete history of the manna up to the end of his own life at age 120. Then Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan.

According to the History channel, the reason we Jews have a Sabbath day of rest is because that's the day Moses had to clean out the machine so that it would work for the rest of the week. Here I picture Moses preaching to rest on the 7th day while he himself, the role model, was busy cleaning a machine. Sure!

First of all, the Zohar is on too high a level even for me to read and understand. It is a book of mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It contains commentaries on the Torah for people who have already achieved a high spiritual degree in understanding the origin of their souls. It's made up of allegories and legends, but it's like for the level of PhD's, not people unaccustomed to Jewish thought. It's like starting with a doctoral course when you should start with a 101 course.

I have a feeling that the writers on History's programming were first digging for something to prove aliens from outer space were in on the Manna, came across some allegory and used that as their proof. I don't believe this was very scientific of them and actually is making fun of the event. This all goes to prove that you can't believe everything you see and hear on TV, even passed off as "history."

The lesson for us to derive from this section of the Torah is to have trust in G-d, belief in the providence and mercy of G-d.

6 comments:

"However, the point the writers were making was that aliens from outer space helped to create Manna. "Oh, really?" The narrators look like they might have come from outer space more than they look like Torah scholars."

I stopped taking the History Channel seriously a few years ago....another quintessential reason why...you just covered!

Hi Jeff, it's just amazing to me that these people on the History Channel, not biblical scholars, are passing everything that has happened in the world off to be the works of aliens from outer space. It's so easy to say, "they did it all." They don't give credit to mankind of earth for having any brains at all or in this case, G-d. So I would say to them, "well, where did the aliens come from? Were there other aliens who helped them along?" Well, at least 2 of us know they're not to be taken seriously.

Just curious, does anyone have any information as to where that omerful of manna may be today? Im in full agreement with you, this is a ridiculous stretch... A machine? Then why did all the manna turn to maggots and worms and rotted by morning, every other day but the sabbath?? That alone is enough to refute this theory...

What popped up in the morning like toadstools or mushrooms 4,000 years ago that Moses called Manna (bread) is not known today. I just found out that the wheat we grow today is not the same that was growing 4,000 years ago, either. Things evolve and mutate, just like some of our cells. It was a miracle then and a miracle today, whatever it was and came along at just the right time. Maybe it was on a 7 day cycle of lasting longer. There are still things in this world that I can't figure out.

I do not know if we have, or ever have had, aliens or not. It certainly does not seem impossible to me. I do think that there is overwhelming evidence in the world today - pyramids, markings that can only be seen from the sky, etc, etc - that there was somebody with a technology high above what we have. I personally tend more towards believing that it was someone native to this planet who survived an earth cataclysm, but who really knows?As far as manna is concerned, has anyone ever read John, chapter 6? All the way through! lol.... It certainly seems to me that Jesus drew a lot of attention to himself - attention from those who he knew would soon be having him hung on the cross - to point out that manna was not from heaven, and to imply that it was not given to Moses by the Father. Doesn't that make anybody wonder who did provide it?

Don Perry, don't know if I deleted your comment or not. It hasn't come up yet, but John, chapter 6 was written at least 100 years after Jesus died, and to say that" Moses did not give you the bread out of heaven, but my father gives you the true bread out of heaven" is calling Moses a liar. This was in response to the disciples saying to Jesus that "Our forefathers in the desert had manna to eat; as the Scripture says, "He gave them bread out of heaven to eat!" Jesus's comment is something that's not a part of Judaism. We don't agree with such comments.

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.